Gail Shea, who spent seven years as the Conservative MP for the Prince Edward Island riding of Egmont during the Stephen Harper years, has died at the age of 66.
The P.E.I. Premier’s Office confirmed the news Thursday afternoon in a statement that did not include details of when and where Shea had died.
“Gail was a mainstay in the Progressive Conservative Party — a loyal, respected, and trusted voice who gave so much of herself to our province and to the people she served,” the statement quoted Premier Rob Lantz as saying. “She was a trailblazer, holding senior roles in both provincial and federal cabinets.
“She was proud of her roots in western P.E.I. and never lost touch with the people and values that shaped her. Her dedication, humility, and quiet strength earned the respect of Islanders from all walks of life.”
Shea was a member of Parliament for two terms lasting a total of seven years, from 2008 to 2015. When the voters of Egmont chose her as their representative, she became the riding’s first non‐Liberal MP in 28 years.
She would go on to make history as the first P.E.I. woman ever named to the federal cabinet.
She served as minister in several portfolios while Harper was prime minister, including National Revenue and Fisheries and Oceans. She was also the cabinet minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency for a time.
“As far as I’m concerned, we have delivered a lot for Prince Edward Island and Atlantic Canada,” she said after losing her MP’s seat in the 2015 federal election. “The actual changes to EI that we made will actually put a million dollars more in recipients’ pockets here on Prince Edward Island.”
Shea said a campaign of misinformation about the Conservative government’s actions was at least partially responsible for her defeat at the hands of Liberal Bobby Morrissey, who remains Egmont’s MP 10 years later.
“It wasn’t a huge surprise,” Shea said. “There was a strong anti-Harper movement out there.”
On Thursday afternoon, Morrissey was among the first to pay tribute to Shea, noting that they grew up in the same area and had known each other long before their politics took different paths.
“She never forgot where she came from, regardless of the office she held over the years,” he said.
Before moving to federal politics, Shea spent seven years as the Progressive Conservative MLA for District 27, Tignish-DeBlois.
She was the province’s first female transportation minister, which was among several portfolios she held under then-premier Pat Binns.
Shea told CBC News in a 2016 interview that one of the low points in her career was having an American seal hunt protester shove a pie into her face while she was attending a rally as fisheries minister.
The pie aimed at Shea was apparently made of tofu, though she told the Hamilton Spectator that it “tasted like shaving cream.”
At the time, Shea told her flustered staff that she was going back out to resume her appearance at the event in Burlington, Ont.
“And they said, ‘You’re not!’ And I said, ‘Yes, I am. If there’s one thing that will tick them off, I want to do it … They’re not going to interfere with the government of Canada.'”
Ann Marie Gail Doucette was born on April 6, 1959, the daughter of Roy Ernest Doucette and Elva Mary Perry.
She had just turned 17 when she married Russell Shea. They would go on to have five children.
Shea trained as a bookkeeper and managed a family business for 15 years, as well as working for a time for the Canada Revenue Agency, at the Summerside Tax Centre.
Stompin’ Tom Connors memorial
She shared the hometown of tiny Skinners Pond with songwriting legend Stompin’ Tom Connors, who was born in New Brunswick but considered P.E.I. his native soil.
“Canada has lost a friend,” Shea told a memorial service after Connors died in 2013.
After losing the 2015 election, Shea said she had no desire to ever try for a political comeback, though she acknowledged people were asking her to run for the provincial Progressive Conservative leadership.
“It’s nice to be able to respond to and to pick up grandkids at school if the parents can’t, so just to be there to do that is great,” Shea told CBC’s Matt Rainnie six months after that election.
“Once you are no longer busy, you realize just how busy you were and how the job really took every moment of every day.”
